Technical Update

My interest and focus in catching more waves have returned. You might ask; "What else were you working on that's not that?" Yes, of course, as I practice on each wave, I try to improve all aspects of surfing, but I now feel that I need to refine the take-off technique to the next level.

Pleasae, though, I would like you to remember whenever you read about describing I am talking about all the skill issues relative to my previous situation, and not relative to yours or Andy Irons!

The area that I am specifically interested in improving are;

* Taking off when there is a lot more power in the wave.
* Develop the staying-power under these types of conditions.
* Reading the waves and positioning.

I am working on this area again because;

* I have gained more confidence in terms of paddling further out and paddling into waves under more variety of situations. The difference now is that I have more confidence. Also when I mess up the take-off, and what happens after that, I can handle these situations with much better skill and confidence.
* As a result of starting to take off on more powerful situations, I am in the wave more frequently. The problem is that what happens after that. What is interesting happening with me on this is that now I keep paddling a lot more and a bit longer and often setting the initial direction.
* And once I am on the board, sometimes, I fall off. This is probably the most aggravating of all because I am in the wave, I have negotiated the first line of drop and was ready to go. I am actually up on the board, but then something isn't quite right to take me to a solid turn #1. All of this is almost exactly the same when I first start to learn how to surf, but now I am starting to deal with much more power, shorter timing and faster speed.

I am presently debating whether to correct and improve these issues through more ground based training, and/or by surfing a lot more. But the answer seems to me that I need to go back to the basics and do some additional ground based stuff since it is probably best to reduce the number of parameters. Perhaps, I should also go to a surfing coach again and get some bad habits spotted too.